Lake Turkana is a miraculous anomaly of life-giving water in a parched and unforgiving land. Formed millions of years ago in the tectonic upheavals that created East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Turkana is the largest permanent desert lake in the world. The lake is home to the world's largest population of Nile crocodiles, hippos, and hundreds of bird and fish species. Its shores have revealed the oldest-known fossil remains of Homo habilis. Today, more than a quarter million indigenous peoples from at least ten tribes have become masters of wresting sustenance from the harsh landscape. Without the lake, life here would be virtually impossible.